Plastic debt repayment improves

British consumers are paying off their credit card debt at a faster rate than they are spending on their plastic, according to figures yesterday from the payment clearing services body, Apacs.

During the year to the end of February an average of £9.2bn a month was spent on credit cards - against £8.6bn the previous year, an increase of 7.3%.

But at the same time figures from the Bank of England showed an average of £9.7bn a month was paid back, up from £8.6bn during the previous 12 months and a rise of 12.5%.

Apacs said the figures were not directly comparable as the first measured total credit card expenditure in the UK - which could include foreign card holders - while the second looked only at data for British-issued cards. But both reflected the general trend of people paying off more than they spent, added Apacs.

The organisation added, however, that people paid interest averaging £520m a month during the year to the end of February, and as a result the amount they owed on their credit cards was still increasing on a month on month basis.